Prince’s Ex-Wife Slams Sinead O’Connor’s Claims About Late Singer, Insists He Was No Woman Beater

By Brent Furdyk.
25 Apr 2018 7:48 AM

Sinead O’Connor made some shocking allegations to the police days after Prince’s death, but the late singer’s ex-wife, Mayte Garcia, has now spoken out in his defence.

Garcia, 44, who was married to Prince from 1996 to 2000, told TMZthat he was never violent to her and she never witnessed him being abusive to anyone, man or woman. She also added that he didn’t do hard drugs when they were together, despite O’Connor’s claims.

Mayte then told the publication that she has a problem with the timing of O’Connor’s allegations, because Prince wasn’t alive to defend himself.

She is also said to have spoken out about O’Connor’s claims suggesting Prince was into devil worship, with her telling the site: “I strongly deny that in his honour.”

Garcia’s comments come after it was reported O’Connor had spoken to police about the late “Purple Rain” singer, alleging that Prince had been a longtime user of “hard drugs” and when under the influence turned violent toward women — including her.

In a telephone interview with Carver County Sheriff’s investigators, just released and obtained by TMZ (above), the Irish singer told police that Prince’s drug dependency was not something he had recently acquired.

“Everyone is mistaken who believes he did not have a drug habit the entirety of his life,” said O’Connor, who scored her biggest hit with a cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”. “He used hard drugs commonly. I know this because I spent time with the man.”

In fact, O’Connor claimed that Prince told her the reason he decided to shelve his notorious “Black Album” — which was recorded in 1987 but not released until 1994 — was that “he had been taking so many dark drugs that he had a vision from God,” who told him “the album was evil and he was not to release it.”

O’Connor also told police that after taking drugs Prince “would be very violent, very aggressive… he had been extremely violent to a number of women in his life, including myself. Several women were put in hospital while Prince was under the effects of these medications.”

O’Connor then shared her own personal story, claiming “he tried beat the s**t out of me,” adding that she managed to “escape” from his house in the middle of the night.

“He had me locked in his house, ready to beat the s**t out of me,” O’Connor continued, “because he had gone upstairs and taken some kind of weird drug… Prince was not a very nice man.”

Around the time O’Connor spoke with police, she also made a shocking allegation that Arsenio Hall had supplied Prince with drugs; she later backed off that claim and issued an apology to Hall after he launched a $5-million defamation lawsuit against her.